United Kingdom

    The new feature is now available to all Uber users (Picture: [copyright]) Uber drivers are accused of sexually assaulting or raping customers almost three times a month, according to new figures which have outraged rape campaigners. Freedom of Information data obtained by The Sun newspaper revealed 32 assault claims were made against employees of the taxi-hailing app in London over the past twelve months, equal to one every eleven days. The figure represents more than a fifth of all claims against taxi and car-hire drivers filed to 14 UK police forces last year, which totalled at 154 allegations including attacks in minicabs and chauffeur vehicles. In January, Uber driver Aliriza Kurt from Finsbury Park was jailed for 18 months after picking up a young woman in his vehicle...

    A woman who said she wanted to marry the terrorist known as “Jihadi John” has been jailed for four and a half years for spreading Isis propaganda. Zafreen Khadam was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court after being found guilty of 10 terror offences. The North East Counter Terrorism Unit (NECTU) said the 32-year-old had openly supported Isis and had told friends she wanted to marry Mohammed Emwazi, the British militant labeled Jihadi John after he appered in several videos beheading Western hostages. The head of NECTU, Detective Chief Superintendent Clive Wain, said his officers had reviewed hundreds of hours of video and thousands of social media posts where Khadam openly expressed her admiration for Isis's extremist ideology and said she was planning to go to Syria. He said: ...

    Britain is on storm alert with up to half a month's rain forecast for parts of the country on Wednesday. Torrential downpours and coastal gales will bring an abrupt halt to the mild and relatively calm spring weather. Forecasters warn things will start to turn unsettled on Tuesday with northern and western regions first in the firing line. Several low pressure systems lined up to move across the country will bring further heavy showers into the weekend, they say. Cumbria and northern England is braced for around an inch of rain - almost half a month's worth - over the next 48 hours. The Met Office said winds could hit gale-force in some regions with gusts of 50mph likely across exposed coasts. Forecaster Alex Burkill said: "It is going to turn unsettled as the week goes on...

    The Army may have to be deployed on the streets of mainland Britain to carry out routine policing duties because constables are reluctant to train as firearms officers, it has been warned. Steve White, chairman of the Police Federation, said officers are not volunteering to carry guns because they fear being "hung out to dry" and treated like a suspect if they discharge their weapon. It could force the Government to call in troops to carry out day-to-day guarding and patrolling duties at major transport hubs, city centres and key buildings such as the Houses of Parliament, he suggested. Mr White, who opens the federation’s annual conference in Bournemouth, Dorset, on Monday, said a national shortage of armed police was leaving Britain vulnerable to terror attack. “I think ...

    Boris Johnson is at the centre of a political storm after he compared European Union efforts to build a superstate to Hitler's attempt to dominate the continent. While the former London mayor acknowledged the EU was using "different methods" to the Nazis, his incendiary comparison to the Third Reich drew a furious response from Remain campaigners. Mr Johnson - seen as the de facto leader of the Leave campaign - said the past 2,000 years of European history had been dominated by doomed attempts to unify the continent under a single government to recreate the "golden age" of the Romans. "Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods," he said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph. "But fundam...

    David Cameron has warned voters that leaving the EU was the "last thing the economy needs" and would be a vote for recession. Speaking at an event in his own Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, the Prime Minister said that "economic security" was the single most important thing for people to consider. He said none of the arguments for Brexit were "able to counter the immediate and sustained hit that we would suffer to our economy" if the UK left the EU. Addressing voters on the biggest day of campaigning yet, dubbed Super Saturday, Mr Cameron said: "If we vote to leave on 23 June we will be voting for higher prices, we will be voting for fewer jobs, we will be voting for lower growth, we will be voting potentially for a recession. That is the last thing our economy needs."...

    Around double the number of private tenants are been being evicted from their homes now compared to when David Cameron first came to power, new figures show. A total of 22,376 private renting households in England were evicted in the last 12 months – twice as many as in the same period five years ago. The numbers, which are drawn from Ministry of Justice statistics on repossessions by county court bailiffs, as well as landlords using the accelerated procedure, come as the House of Lords tries to block the Government’s new Housing Bill, which some peers say will lead to an even bigger shortage of affordable homes in Britain. Campbell Robb, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said the Government’s forthcoming Bill – which contains measures to sell off more social...

    The Bank of England has issued an unprecedented warning that the UK economy could endure “materially lower growth.. notably higher inflation” and “rises in unemployment” if Britain votes to leave the European Union next month. The report warns of sterling falling, "perhaps sharply" – code for falls of 20% - if there is a Leave vote. It blamed half of the existing 9% fall in the value of the pound since November on a referendum effect. The report also indicated that the referendum itself was already hitting growth – the forecast for the current quarter slashed from 0.5% to 0.3%, the lowest growth since the 2012 Eurozone crisis. The Bank has never before detailed the risks of a political event in this way, and this is its most extraordinary intervention in a political e...

    The Queen was caught on camera making unguarded comments about the Chinese government during a garden party at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. The Queen made the comments about the highly sensitive Chinese state visit on the same day that Prime Minister David Cameron was also filmed telling her that Nigeria and Afghanistan were "fantastically corrupt countries." Queen Elizabeth II looks at China's President Xi Jinping as they stand next to China's First Lady Peng Liyuan and Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at the royal pavilion on Horse Guards ParadeCredit: AFP/Getty Images The Queen was introduced to Commander Lucy D'Orsi, who was commander of the policing operation for the Chinese state visit last October, during the monarch's first garden party of the season at...

    Buses featuring an Arabic phrase ‘Subhan Allah’ which translates as ‘Glory to Allah’ would run across the streets of London in order to raise awareness during the holy month of Ramadan. According to Express, hundreds of buses across Britian would carry the phrase ‘Subhan Allah,’ as part of a campaign by a charity Islamic Relief. The charity organization states that the posters would help raise funds for victims of war and disasters in countries such as Syria, and would also portray Islam in a positive light. “There is a lot of negativity around Muslims. We want to change the perception of Islam. The campaign is about breaking down barriers and challenging misconceptions,” said Islamic Relief’s UK Director, Imran Madden. As per BT, Subhan Allah would most prominently be fea...